Vir Das was born in Dehradun and has lived in Africa, Shimla and Delhi. He spent four years at Knox College, Illinois and a year at Harvard University. He studied Economics and acting.
He started as a stand up comedian in the US. He performed at the Habitat Center, New Delhi on a visit to India. After doing a show for the Times of India, he received a chance to work with Zoom TV on the show Ek Rahen Bir. He is also seen on CNBC's News on the Loose.[1]
Vir Saran Das began his acting training in 1999 when he left for Knox College where he received a Bachelor's in Economics & Theatre with a concentration in performance. During his four-year tenure at Knox he was also a teaching assistant for Beginning Acting.
Knox was also where he first explored stand up comedy with his first (1 and 1\2 hour) special Brown Men Can't Hump which debuted to an audience of 800 in the college's main theatre. At Knox, Vir was given a Richter Scholarship for Theatre and the Colton Performance Award for Outstanding Achievement in Acting.
During his time in the USA, Vir was a cast member in three sketch comedy troupes. The Really Useless Improv, Improv Inc, and Illegal Aliens. He performed, wrote and developed 'Whose Line is it Anyway?' style comedy sketches with them.
After graduating from Knox, Vir was accepted into Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts for their Stanislavsky Program in coalition with the Moscow Arts Theatre. At Harvard, Vir trained as a method' actor for six months and performed eight plays with the Moscow Arts Theatre.
He has also performed as a ship comedian aboard carnival cruise liners between Houston and Mexico. Furthermore, he also spent time working the comedy clubs in Chicago. klli;; Vir returned to India in April 2003 and since then has performed over a hundred comedy shows in all of the major cities. He has debuted six (1.5 hour) comedy specials written, directed by and starring him at the India Habitat center to audiences of over 900 a night. These include: Brown Men Can't Hump, Not for Members Only, Bored of The Things!, Who Let the Das Out?, and Son of a Switch! and VIRagra. Every one of these shows has sold out within a matter of days.
Vir started his career on TV when he hosted two TV shows on Zoom Channel. The first one was Is Route Ki Sabhin Linein Maast Hain where he was an agony uncle. The second one was his own stand-up comedy late night show entitled Ek Rahin Vir. Although early for their time, they got noticed and put Vir on the comedic map in India. Vir has also hosted Top Drive getaway for Star World.
You can currently catch Vir's comedy on TV in various different genres of entertainment. He hosted Cricket Firsts, a sports comedy show on Zee Sports. He did improvisational comedy on SAB TV's Lo Kal Lo Baat. He was an addition to the cast of The Great Indian Comedy Show on Star One. He can also be seen anchoring Now Not Showing on CNN-IBN.
Most importantly, Vir is the host of News on the Loose, his own news comedy show on CNBC. The show is a huge hit amongst the Indian audiences for its fearless brand of intelligent comedy. News on the loose was recently given its own Weekly half hour special entitled News On The Loose- Weekend on CNBC TV18. The weekend show is also a hit!
Vir was cast as the comic relief by bagging one of the principle characters in The Curse of King Tut's Tomb. A Hallmark mini-series filmed here in India. He began filming for his first two Bollywood roles in early 2006. He can currently be seen in Vipul Shah's hit movie Namaste London. Vir can be seen in more Hindi movies in 2007 and 2008.
The Indian Express has called him 'a comedian to watch out for'. The Hindustan Times calls him 'simply hysterical'. Delhi Times has listed him as one of Delhi's Top Ten Dream Men. The Pioneer has called him 'The Funniest Kid in India'. Verve has called him 'India's only true comic'. The Indian Express has dubbed him 'India's Answer to Jay Leno'.
Vir currently has approximately 35 plays, over 100 stand up comedy shows, 8 TV shows, 2 movies and 6 comedy specials behind him. He is also writing comedic columns for Femina, Maxim, Exotica, DNA and Tehelka. He is 27 years old.